Polymer usage has increased yearly for the past fifty years. The types of polymers available have also increased. New polymers are introduced in the market each year; these new plastics have different physical and chemical characteristics such as melt temperature, hardness and solubility. The reuse of this multitude of plastic materials having widely different physical and chemical properties is most difficult. The separation of polymer types is impossible by visual inspection. Some polyethylene, polyacrylonitrile, polystyrene, polyesters, polyethylene terephthalate, and polypropylene look and feel much the same, but may have different melt temperatures. High density and low density polyethylene have greatly different properties. Removing labels from containers and residues from within containers is also an economically impossible task.